Wednesday, August 20

Summer has brought gelati - buona gelati - good anytime-I've had it for breakfast, lunch, dinner & dessert! (We are fatties, what can I say, we'll shout out - "What time is it?" the answer..."Gelati-thirty!")Good anywhere - find a stool, wander down a cobble stone road, sit around a fountain or dangle your legs in the water - it really doesn't matter....Now what does matter is the flavor selection. This is serious business. Do I order a single flavor - or maximize my cone with 2 gusti (flavors) that compliment eachother...stick with the tried & true (for me caffe & pistacchio) or head towards the fruity side with something like melone (cantelope) which can be sooo good too! Jason sticks to lemone for something fresh & ciocolate (chocolate) & fior di latte (like a light vanilla). Sometimes I like to switch it up when we try out a new Gelateria - ohh I've never had this before...that doesn't always end up to be a good choice. I've had a few major disappointments.So what does gelato mean? It comes from the Italian word gelare "to freeze". Gelati is usually made from fresh milk & sugar combined with fresh ingredients. You want to find artisanal shops that make their own for the best, creamiest, freshest tasting gelati. Most gelateria's are closed in the winter around our neck of the woods- making spring & summer the only time to taste this treat fresh - so a girl's gotta get her fill!Flavors: lots of hazelnut varieties (with chocolate or nutella for example), coffee (always a winner), pistacchio, one time in Rome I had cinammon - it was amazing - (one good cone, deserves another - I went back for seconds!!) Then the fruits - fragola (strawberry), frutti di bosco (fruit of the woods - berries)- when this one is made with real fruit it has such a rich dark color & can be out of this world! The list goes on & on.....We feel it's our duty to try each spot in the area, really sample the flavors - find the best spots for guests, family & friends who come & visit...or at least this is what we tell ourselves after we've had gelati everynight for a week!

Tuesday, August 19

It's never a dull moment here - the other day a neighbor stopped by (the same gentleman that delivers our wood) with a huge box of what else...meat! 18 kg or 32 lbs worth of straight beef!

He had just slaughtered a cow - Chianina, the big white cows of Le Marche & wanted to drop some off.

Jason had no idea what was in the box as it was pushed to his face, the man spun to jump back in the car with a happy wave to say Ciao!

The box contained:

3 lbs ground beef

6 Rib eye steaks

40 slices of fettine pissaiola - veal for the pan

A huge eye round

4 filet mignon

4 oso buco

3 fatty rib eye steaks

beef with bones for stew

meat for brodo (broth)

bones without meat for brodo (broth)

Now that is what I call a serious box of meat! We have yet to get a bill for all this meat, but we can't believe that we could be lucky enough that it's a gift! We'll see....We're just happy eating our way through it & serving the delicious local meat to our guests.

Thursday, August 7

Peaches a plenty!! This has become our summer staple - we eat this brightly colored stone fruit almost daily - juicy, delicious & running down your chin & hands! Ahhh the bounty of summer fruits-we buy them buy the case!! I have started jarring/canning/perserving & making jams or marmalades as well as fillings for pies. Each batch comes out a little better than before! Jason has mastered peach sorbet & it is to die for - so light & refreshing any time of the day! This is a wonderful way to end a summer dinner.

Combine sugar & water in a pan on the stove. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat & simmer for about 3 minutes. Add peaches & continue to simmer for 5 minutes (unless they are super soft - then you don't need to cook them down). Remove from the heat for 5 minutes, then add lemon juice & zest. Pour everything into a food processor & pulse until it's a puree.

(If you want to spike it with grappa, add it now, give it a stir & taste. The grappa shouldn't be too boozy or overbearing when you taste it - just nice & subtle. If you add too much alcohol it won't freeze.)

Pour the mixture into a shallow earthenware or thick porcelain dish (put this in the freezer before you begin to make freezing a bit faster). Put the dish in the freezer & whisk it up with a fork every half hour - make sure the scrap the edges & bottom too. After a couple hours (almost 3 hours of mixing) it should start coming together as a smooth frozen sorbet.

Make sure that you are on top of the stirring to avoid forming ice crystals.

It will keep about 3 days in the freezer before it starts becoming icy.

Monday, August 4

We recently worked on an article for Ecoescape (a green travel guide and online directory of environmentally friendly places to stay and visit. It is a meeting place for green travellers to raise awareness of sustainable travel and responsible escapism in the UK and Ireland). We focused on Slow Food & eating seasonally at our agriturismo La Tavola Marche. Slow Food is not about cooking in a crock pot ( a common misconception) but about eating locally, seasonally & protecting the heritage, tradition & culture of the food - which is exactly what we do every day, every meal!

This event is a tribute to Giuseppe Balsamo, better known as Count Cagliostro a famous figure in the Masonic circles of the 18th century, who was imprisoned into the fortress of San Leo and died there on the 26th of August 1795. Live entertainment in the old center with lectures, dinner and a spectacular fireworks display from the fortress.

Of course there are tons more festivities, these are specifically for the Pesaro-Urbino area - all within an hour of our Agriturismo/farmhouse making for the perfect day trip into the Le Marche hill towns!